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Hong Kong's Canto-Western cuisinePosted Jan 12th 2007 1:00PM by Joe DiStefanoFiled under: Far East, Food Oddities, Did you know?MSNBC had a wonderful in-depth piece about the phenomenon of Canto-Western cuisine, i.e. old-school interpretations of Western dishes by Hong Kong chefs. I heard of this style of cooking years ago, but never knew much about it, or just how oddball some of its fusion dishes are. Imagine starting your meal with a prawn and fruit salad topped with a dollop of mayonnaisey cream. Follow that up with an app of Swiss sauce chicken wings. Here comes your steak sputtering on a sizzle plate awash in soy sauce and garlic gravy. If you're not in a meaty mood, get some fried rice layered with tomato or cream sauce.The article notes that Canto-Western sprang up in the '60s and '70s at steakhouses. It was Hong Kong's attempt to come to grips with Western food which, at the time, was considered exotic. This phenomenon is strikingly similar to old-school Chinese restaurants in America. Not unsurprisingly, going out to eat at a Canto-Western joint is a nostalgic experience now that all sort of Western fare is available in Hong Kong. One of the best places in Hong Kong to sample Canto-Western is Tai-Ping Koon, which opened its first branch in Guangdong (formerly canton) more than a hundred years ago. It was Tai-Ping Koon that invented Swiss sauce chicken wings, which turn out to have nothing do with Switzerland. Legend has it that a foreigner who tasted the dish proclaimed it sweet, which was misheard as Swiss.
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